origin and the pros and cons of facebook's new infinity meta logo

facebook rebrand as ‘meta’ reveals its metaverse plan

facebook founder mark zuckerberg announced earlier this week that the giant tech company is now changing its name to ‘meta’ – with a new logo resembling a distorted infinity loop. this decision puts a spotlight on the founder’s next step in connecting people virtually, which he calls the ‘metaverse’ plan. naturally, right after the news, the internet began flooding with opinions, speculations, and unavoidable criticism.

meta logo, new logo billboard at facebook’s headquarters

at the end of his keynote speech during the connect 2021 conference on october 28, zuckerberg highlighted that the facebook rebrand as ‘meta’ was done in an effort to truly represent everything that the company does and will do. in greek, the word ‘meta’ translates to ‘beyond’ – echoing zuckerberg’s belief that ‘there is always more to build’. he goes on stating that the ‘brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future’. 

demonstrating the transition in brand identity | animation © facebook

enter facebook’s ‘metaverse’ plan – a vision for the future where virtual and augmented realities become fully integrated in the company’s product and services. ‘the metaverse is the next evolution of social technology — where you can share immersive experiences with people even when you can’t be together in person, and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world’,  writes facebook on its website blog. 

facebook meta logo, image via facebook connect

the meta symbol, explained

furthermore, this all-encompassing new name is met with a new logo that facebook explains was ‘designed […] to live in motion and 3D’.  the company shaped the new symbol as a continuous loop that morphs and takes on different meaning depending on the viewer’s vantage point; the symbol looks like an M for ‘meta’  from one angle and an infinity sign from another – reflecting the endless layers of the metaverse.  

facebook meta logo animation © facebook

building on that thought, ‘the meta symbol was designed to dynamically live in the metaverse — where you can move through it and around it. it can take on infinite textures, colors and movement, capturing the creativity and imagination of a 3D world. it was also important that the symbol take on a blue gradient and pull in the color of our core products, connecting our future to our company’s origins,’ says facebook. 

facebook meta logo animation © facebook

now- where does the infinity logo come from? one theory dictates that it finds its origins in the ‘ouroboros’ symbol. historically symbolizing infinity and the cycle of birth and death, the ‘ouroboros’ depicts a snake or dragon biting its own tail while contorted into a horizontal figure 8.

the ‘ouroboros’ symbol

there’s also talk of the ‘eight dynamics’ or ‘octave of creation’ principles which are based on the creation of life and the urge to exist for infinity. from the division of cells (mitosis) to ancient egyptian scriptures, the eighth step seems to always be associated to the act of creation and to a new ‘life’ forming. this concept eventually seeped into other disciplines and cultures – like the 8 note octave system in music – as a way to reflect how things perpetually renew every 8 steps ad infinitum. 

tweet by erik spiekermann in response to the facebook rebrand as ‘meta’